


The Air's So Heavy, It Could Drown A Butterfly

by oliveriley



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: Cancer, F/F, Oneshot, Tumblr Prompt, sad fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-14
Updated: 2014-03-14
Packaged: 2018-01-15 16:01:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1310770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oliveriley/pseuds/oliveriley
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Title from "Falling or Flying" by Grace Potter and the  Nocturnals.</p><p><b>Prompt:</b> <i>Katniss kissing Jo’s bald head and telling her she’s beautiful with or without hair.</i></p><p>As always, I don't own these guys. And I got the prompt from jonissheadcanons.tumblr.com;</p><p>This is a sad oneshot. I'm sorry. But it's very easy for me to relate to and I cried for ten minutes after writing it. So if you can handle it, please, read. I love writing for all y'all. If you don't want to be sad, don't proceed. Read one of my fluffier fics.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Air's So Heavy, It Could Drown A Butterfly

She came home to see Johanna in the bathroom, knuckles white on the porcelain sink. “Do you like it?” Her voice was thick and she looked up in the mirror, meeting Katniss’s eyes indirectly. She had shaved her already short hair into a mohawk, spiky and tufty, and Katniss gave her a thin smile as she came up behind her girlfriend, hugging her from behind and burying her face in between her shoulders.

"I love it, Jo," she rasped, deeply inhaling the other woman’s earthy, woody scent and sighing. She clutched onto Johanna like a crux; like if she let go, the other woman might disappear. Might burst into dust.

"I figure -"

"No. Johanna, no. Please. We’re not doing this again we’re not talking about it not now. Let’s eat dinner. Please. Dinner, and we’ll read, and we’ll go to bed like we always do."  
Johanna pretended she didn’t feel the tears dampening her tee shirt between her shoulders. Instead, she turned around slowly, winding her arms around Katniss and kissing the top of her head. “I love you.”

"I love you. And your crazy hair."  
—-

Johanna wore hats when she left the house. But at home, they pretended that the hair in the mohawk wasn’t thinning. They went about their daily business, although Johanna stayed home now. They spent more time on the sofa snuggling while they read. Katniss made the mistake of suggesting they eat in the living room and had to console a furious, screaming Johanna, who soon dissolved into sobs. They still ate at the table. They still pretended.

—-

"Do you like it?"

She had to meet Katniss’s eyes directly now, small against their bed. Her skin was pale, and she was thin; bags under her eyes and pale lips gave her the appearance of a patient. She was still fiery, though, or tried to be. Katniss came to curl up next to her, gray eyes misting. She didn’t even pretend to smile. “Oh, Jo…”

"You don’t like it."  
"I love you."  
"Am I awful?"  
"You’re not awful. You are beautiful. My Johanna, my lovely, wonderful Johanna. With," she stopped, kissing the bald head and cradling a trembling Johanna to her. "Or without hair." She blinked back tears as Johanna shook, sobs tearing out of her throat.

—-

Katniss sat in their kitchen, hands wrapped around glass of scotch, another on the table at the seat across from her at the small table. “I always thought you were beautiful,” she croaked, “with or without hair.” There was no response, and Katniss knocked back her drink and reached across the table for the other, shooting it and throwing the glass across the kitchen. She found the energy to cry.


End file.
